FULL Lakers POSTGAME INTERVIEWS & ANALYSIS vs Jazz: JJ Redick, LeBron, Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves

FULL Lakers POSTGAME INTERVIEWS & ANALYSIS vs Jazz: JJ Redick, LeBron, Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves

at that time. So to get that dunk that goes to show he’s a heads up type of player and he knows how to play the game. And as Lucas said to Mike Trudeell, team win. Now you come home for four in a row. Yeah, I think for a team that we’ve all looked at from the outside looking in as as a close, tight-knit team, you you aren’t eight and two on the road or seven-2 going into this one on the road for nothing. There’s something that is working, but I think these are opportunities that you show what you’re capable of in different kind of situations. As you mentioned, it’s one and you get in, you get out. It’s 34 degrees in Utah. It’s it’s a game in November. You could have easily laid down early on when you know exactly what I’m talking about. When Utah responded to the early start for the Lakers I mean down the stretches in the fourth, you look like things are going well. You’re starting to pull away. Uh Utah had eight points until they finished winning the quarter with 25. So you get through those hurdles and those things that you look at the film when you have a time to to sit down and kind of find ways to get better. Uh but I think all in all the contributions you mentioned Maxi Kibba. I look at a guy like Marcus Smart who’s a plus 18. Yeah. Um those little things that don’t show up in the box score big on that final defensive possession no matter what the call was. Um and so yeah, a total team win for the squad. You know, we got to set up this last sequence because the Lakers actually only had a one-point lead and Markin had a shot from about 15 ft. He missed it. We thought that ball went out of really strong defensive play down the stretch for the Lakers. So Luca Donuch, we’ll start with him guys on a night where he was just three for 12 uh from three and a night where he said, “I got to make that extra free throw there and he also talked about just you know being a little tired the legs uh there in Utah but he got he gets it done still Alli 33 points 10 of 24 got the uh 11 rebounds and eight assists. Yeah, I I do like still the 10 of 12. Obviously, he wants those couple of free throws, but I just think again, it serves as an opportunity to show you the attack mode that he stayed in. Team for those first couple of quarters and and putting us in the position to win because being a former player and going into Utah, no matter what team they put on the floor, they have a great fan base and it’s hard to win in that building, especially on one of these games that could be a slip game for you because you think about you have four days off and then you go into Utah for one game. Your mind is somewhere else probably. But they came in and like, “Okay, we got to win this thing.” And you think about it though, you got Thanksgiving coming up. You going to Utah for one game, you’re going to be home for Thanksgiving. You got family coming in. Four games in a row coming home. That’s a lot of things that be on your head other than this game right here. But but kudos to them. They played big and LeBron played great. You know, everybody in the starting five except Aiden, you know, was in double figures. So, it was a totally team effort. Key part of that game for you guys that third quarter, the Lakers had that drought where they just couldn’t score, couldn’t scratch for over three, four minutes and it was an 110 run by the Jazz and they Jazz end up going up seven. The Lakers close on a 13-3 run to end that quarter and kind of take over that game again. Time to hear from head coach JJ Reic brought to you by your Toyota dealers. JJ, up until that kind of final flurry from Utah, you had really held them things down defensively in the fourth quarter. What was the key to that? Did you think just an increased physicality? Da I I I don’t actually know what Lauren might be able to help us here, but I I don’t know what’s going on with him. So, he had gotten I think hit on his leg in the first half and was kind of limping through it and then um couldn’t go in the second half. And so, Maxi coming in in that second half, really changed the game for us um with his physicality. Made some plays at the rim um you know, had the big bucket late, but he was great. Gabe was great as well. and and those two guys playing that extended run, that’s really where our defense was solidified. They scored 17 points in the first four and a half, five minutes of the third quarter and then up until the last uh flurry um you know, I think they had 22 points for the rest of that half. You know, they was right stuck at sort of 94 there. So, I thought it was our defense won us the game. And I told the guys this after the game, we’re we’re literally one of the worst shooting teams in the NBA right now. I don’t think that’s who we are. Um, we’ve got to make shots and we got to shoot them with confidence and and to me, if we’re if we’re guarding with that level of physicality and passing the ball to each other, look, we had 23 assists, we could have easily had 30 some uh if we made shots tonight. We got we got to shoot the ball better, but it’s got to be uh a belief in each other and a belief in ourselves to to knock down shots. Luca mentioned in in the walk-off that with the with all the off days, it was just a little bit of kind of a break rhythm and guys were trying to find it, but I guess things normalize now. It’s going to be back to the routine schedule. Did did you feel that just watching different guys out there? Uh yeah, I mean I I lived through it as a player. So I think there’s some some merit to that. I think there’s some merit to playing in altitude. I think there’s some merit to um you know it’s only our second game back with the full group and then we’ll we’ll see what happens with DA, but um yeah, it’s it’s always a little can be a little weird coming off an extended break. Have you seen hesitancy when it comes to shooting in your guys? You said shoot them with confidence. Do you feel like you guys are shooting with confidence right now? We’re shooting. No, look, we’re we’re taking a lot of shots that necessarily we’re turning down shots. Um, you know, we we started off the year last year really poor from three-point. Um, and then from I I think it was December 23rd against the Pistons, we did launch drill and shoot around that morning. And then from then on, we were a really good shooting team. So that that took, you know, two months of the season. Um hopefully it doesn’t take that long, but we we got to shoot the ball better for us to be um as good as we want to be. You you guys haven’t shot it particularly well. The defensive metrics are so so um on the course of the season, but we’re here and you guys are 12 and four. Um how do you think I I guess how have you guys managed to win 12- 16 when you’ve been not the best version of yourselves? Uh we’ve done enough outside of two games um to be in a position to win. I think our togetherness is important. Um playing for each other. Uh you know, the the bench spirit tonight was great. I do think there’s uh something with this group where we just whatever the game requires that night, that’s what we’re going to do to try to put us in a position to win. Um and we’ve had to kind of strategy-wise mix in a bunch of different things. Uh and the guys have been bought in to just hey, this is what tonight requires. Let’s let’s go out there and try to execute that. And that’s put us in a position to win um 14 of our 16 games. If you have to go any stretch of time without Aiden, how do you view your options with Jackson? Even Clever, you were very complimentary of him after the Milwaukee game. And possibly could we see Jared get some minutes again after falling out of the rotation. You obviously played in small ball five last year. Yeah, I mean, everybody’s got to be ready. Uh, again, I don’t want to speculate on DA, but um, you know, we feel confident that we we have enough options. JJ, you’re talking about the physicality on defense. Is that something you can practice and and get that habit is in or is it practice it every day? Is it also kind of like a mentality like guys just have to choose to to do that in in that possession or Yeah. or in that moment? Yeah, it it the the choosing to do it I I think sometimes is not necessarily about oh I’m not going to be physical right now. It’s why physicality and awareness go hand in hand. Um, so the the physicality part, you know, that that could be at the point of attack, that could be setting a screen, that could be boxing out. Um, that has to the guys don’t go on the court and say, you know what, I’m going to be lazy tonight. Um, sometimes it’s just the mental awareness of what’s going on and the then the execution to do it in a physical manner. That’ll be good. Um, there was a stretch in the second quarter where I I think it was the second quarter where like LeBron signaled over to the bench like I need to come out of the game and then proceeded to score the next six points for you guys. Uh, obviously um we were going to get him. So, just to be clear, I saw it. So, we had we had that in the works. Yeah. But, um, I mean, just kind of where’s he at in terms of working back? It seemed like this was almost like another first game for him in in in some ways and kind of what did you see from him? I thought he did a lot of good things uh in transition and did a lot of good things as a passer. Again, we had a lot of success out of the post. Um didn’t go to that late because of the maxi cuz Maxi was out there. So, you know, with Jackson or DA feel comfortable with them sort of in the dunker spot, but Maxi, we were trying to space, so we went more to that elbow ISO um when we created a mismatch late. Uh and I think LeBron made some some good decisions out of that. So again, I think for him it’s the wind, but it’s also the rhythm. Just trying to find that and and we’re confident he will. Has come storming back, but the Lakers hold on. They go to 12 and four. Fourth best record in the NBA through 16 games. Third best record in the West. Luca Dons with 33, Austin Reeves 22, and LeBron James 17. So, the Lakers just 10 of 38 from three, just 44% from the field, but they find a way to get it done. They are now 8-2 on the road. Next up for the Lakers, NBA Cup X 360 Lakers good on the uh fast break, Rob. Oh, so you making me do that and go to the wall? Yeah, man. I wish this is why I miss big games. I should have thrown the ball to you. Oh my goodness, man. Man, should be something else. This is the BSBD that we get ready to do right here. It’s about, you know, good defense, good offense. Right here, you got LeBron getting a nice pick and roll. This is becoming one of the staples in the Lakers offense where you set a pick and slip. So now you sit the pick and you slip. But that slip pass was even better. Know that should be the what? Oh, y’all not even paying attention. The wall right here. Now you got great defense by RH. Great block. Here’s the thing about Ruie, he’s not known for his shot block ability. He can because he’s so athletic. Right there. Paying attention, Rob. Now he gets that. Now he’s off to the fast break. Right here. He has an opportunity to go right or left. But if he goes left, that’s going to freeze the defense. So he goes left. The defense has to freeze right there. He’s able to do the slow motion. Everybody see the little kid running the bases. That slow motion he did. That’s what he was doing right here. Now you got another pick. Jackson Hayes switches. This is good defense right here. Everybody’s up. Everybody’s moving. Look, you got a little back door. You got Larry Martin right here. Luca, this is where they anticipate the switch. But Luca says, “You know what? I’m in great defensive position.” Say it for me. Nutmeg. There you go. Nutmeg. Because I’ve never used that term in my life before unless I’m putting a little nutmeg in my pancakes. But other than this, Jack top cooking. I do cook up top right here. Now we got a Austin Reeds with the rebound up top. Here’s Luca. Luka has one, two, three, four defenders around. What is he going to do? I’m gonna go to the hole and make y’all all pay attention to me and give it to my favorite guy RH. At this moment in the game, RH was on fire. I would do flames, but flames are reserved for James and he’s not here tonight. So that’s what you have to do when Sharon is Karen Ally up top. One time pickle ball player. All right. And then you know you just share the ball. You have fun with it and then you enjoy the moment. He’s a competitor. We don’t Okay. We’re on different teams, guys. Different team. You want to jump in on that play, Ally, since I didn’t give you the the not make the cinnamon spice. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just how cool it was. Yeah. Just, you know, Kevin Love is going to feel picked on by the Lakers. It was a great breakdown. And I think the biggest thing for this team is when you talk about where you need to get to defensively, the sharing, the carrying, the the ball movement, the execution, the cutting off ball offensively, bringing it all together. They’ve had great glimpses of it throughout this early part of the season, but it’s only going to continue to get better. And plays like that show you exactly why they’re capable. Austin Reeves ended up with 22 points. He’s with Mike Trudeell. Austin, before that Utah kind of made that final push, uh Maxi was in there for a while Gabe, but what did they bring defensively in that fourth quarter? They were huge. They both, you know, uh provided, you know, really big minutes and, uh, you know, were very impactful to us winning that game. If we didn’t have them, we probably wouldn’t have won that one. Do you guys have any debate on how DA is even spirit wise after having leave the game? Uh, I haven’t been able to talk to him yet, so I don’t know. I mean, I’m I’m sure he’s just frustrated because he wasn’t able to continue. Um, you know, we obviously missed him. Um, but it was next man mentality and Maxi came in and changed the game. What did you think of Maxi Maxi’s minutes, especially in the second half? Um, I I’ve given him many compliments in games before and he always tells me that he didn’t play good. So, I told him today, I was like, “I know you think I’m messing with you every time I talk to you, but dude, he was one of the best fighters on the forc. Uh, just energy, effort, the way he plays, the the plays he made. Um, you know, it’s it’s it’s not easy to do, you know, sitting the whole first half and then coming out there and, uh, you know, doing what he did.” So, uh, big, uh, you know, you tip your hat to guys like that to, you know, and you want to see them succeed. you you’ve had the start, you’ve added the season, the team’s had the start it’s had to the season, but like nobody can make a three on this team. Uh yourself included right now. Um like what’s going on with that part of of of things? Um it doesn’t seem like it’s a quality issue. See, you guys are getting pretty good shots. No, I mean I think you know to start the Oh, Oh, sorry. Sorry. I’m sorry. Uh maybe I’ll start making them now. to how I do anything to make it through right now. Um I I mean to start the third quarter I got two looks. We got a good look in the quarter. Brian got a good look in the corner. I think Luke had one or two good looks and I don’t think we made one of them. Uh JJ said it after the game. You know, we’re 12 and four and are the worst three-point shooting team in the league in some metrics just about. You will um mix for a game coming into tonight. So, I mean, if they go in, we win more games. So, uh, it’s very, you know, encouraging. Uh, we know we got guys in here that can shoot the ball. Uh, just unfortunately, they haven’t. James with 17 points in 34 minutes. He’s just Mike Trudeau. LeBron, it seems like every night in the NBA, a team’s up 10, you know, late and the other team kind of cuts into it and it can it can flow. What’s what’s the key to just getting one key stop, making one key play, and what was that tonight? I mean, you just said it. at me. Um I think we went up 11. Um turned the ball over, had an opportunity to push it up, but I mean it’s the NBA. You got, you know, great players all over the league and there’s no league that’s safe and you always got to play to the end of the uh uh to the end of the horn. We did that. Was able to get that last stop. Luca was saying in the walk-off that, you know, it’s obviously odd to have four days basically between games and it can get into a rhythm. I would expect particularly for you since you just played your first game. How do you kind of manage through that physically and now as you as you hit the more routine schedule coming up this week? Uh I actually excited about the the normal routine. You know that was definitely odd. Uh you can kind of you know I was already not with a rhythm and then you out of four days you kind of get out of rhythm even more. So uh but it was good. We did some great things this week. Was able to get on the practice court a lot and uh do a couple things as a team bond and things. So that was great. Uh but happy to get back on the basketball floor uh and and play some ball, play some ball. Marcus said he thinks an early characteristic for this team is resiliency and that explains a 12 and four record. You had to show it again tonight with DeAndre going out. What was he see out of Jackson and Maxi? Uh everything that we needed. Obviously Jackson has been in a starting role with us for us before. So, uh very easy for him to step in into that role, but Maxi gave us big time minutes. Um brought physicality. Um had a big time move towards the end to get that dunk. Um, you know, had a couple rebounds, couple blocks. Uh, he was big for us and we needed it. LeBron, you said basically, who cares? Keep shooting. I mean, like you guys, uh, as a team have not shot the ball well at all yet this season. It won’t last. I’m not worried about it. We got too many good shooters. It won’t last. How encouraging is I mean, there’s almost I mean, you guys are still 12. We getting great looks. I mean, if it was if we was shooting bad shots and missing, then how then we can be, you know, worrying about, okay, how we how can we create better looks? We’re getting great looks, all of us. Um, so not worried about that. We The numbers will average out. People talk about getting back into like there’s getting back into shape and there’s getting back into basketball shape and getting your basketball wind. Um, I think it was in the second quarter. You kind of looked over the bench, put your hand up in the second, first, second, third, and fourth. Well, there was definitely one of them. Come get me. Yeah, I was going to say you ended up you find yourself though like involved in I think like three straight buckets after one of those. Um, just kind of where’s your wind at right now? Um, boy, like I said, the four days didn’t help it. I mean, we we practiced a couple times. We had a couple scrimmages, but the only way to get back in basketball shape is to be playing in basketball games. So, you know, I’m in great shape physically, but as far as my win, I got to and it doesn’t help to my second game back playing in in Utah. The altitude, it doesn’t help, you know, that’s for sure. So, um, you know, every game I’ll get better and better. um my win to get better and better, but like this week was kind of like my training camp for me, you know, to be honest. You know, I didn’t get an opportunity to practice with the guys at all, you know, throughout camp, throughout the preseason. So, you know, I’m still working my way back. You guys got the Clippers coming up and Chris Paul announced over the weekend is going to be the final season for him. And obviously, you gave some respect for him on social media. You guys have been intertwined in so many ways over the course of your career. What’s your thought about him, you know, kind of making the announcement? Um, and how do you what do you wish for him to get out of his his final season? Happiness. Um, just be as happy as he possibly can. You don’t want to look back on, you know, you know, when you’re done and be like, you know, I was angry or I didn’t, you know, take full advantage of, you know, your last year and things of that nature. So, you know, I know he’s happy being back in LA with his family, you know, seeing little CP, seeing his daughter, seeing what they’re doing. You know, I know that’s pretty special to him. Um, so hope we can just get joy out of this final year and, uh, you know, like you said, we’ve known each other for forever. So, um, hell of a player, hell of a career. Um, I can go on and on and on, but this is is awesome. I mean, he has nothing to hang his head about. He’s he’s done pretty much everything that this league had to offer. And um yeah, I just hope he just takes it all in. You know, this is this last hurrah. So, we’d never get this moment again once you’re done to be able to go out and, you know, be in the arena. Going back to the shooting, last question. You mentioned that you guys are creating good shots and despite you know, the looks not going down, you guys are still 12 and four. Does that inspire confidence that you guys are winning these games? possess our confidence in terms of what this group can be in the long-term outlook once those shots do start to fall. We’re not worried about that. Uh, you know, like I said, if we were out there not creating great looks or we were not playing or we were playing selfish basketball, that’s it’s not our MO. So, you know, you look at over half of the threes that we missed tonight, a lot of them was wide open, but a lot of them was just finding finding the right player, finding the the ball has so much energy in it that we’re not worried about that. Um, you know, when we not making shots, we got to defend. Um, and this team right here is a team that can put up 140, can put up 130, can score with the best of them. You got to be able to get stops. And it took us all the way to the last possession to get the stop that we needed to win the ball game. So, that’s the encouraging part knowing that even when we’re not shooting the ball well, we can we can still win ball games. All right, guys. Ally, I’ll start with you. What uh LeBron said, “Listen, I I called to get out of game in the second, third, and fourth quarter.” Uh he brought something. He brought up something I thought was interesting. He said, “Listen, the four days off actually hurt me. Like the only way to I’m in great shape, but the only way to get into basketball shape and get your wind up is to play basketball.” Sure, they practiced a couple of times, but maybe over the course of these next four home games, you start to see that get a little bit better for LeBron as well. Pickleball teammate, I’m going to give you a little bit of credit here because in the break, we were talking about how just it’s a unique week yet again for the Lakers, having a game on Tuesday and then not again till Friday. You do have practice opportunities in there. And then you hear LeBron say it’s all about routine and getting into the rhythm. It makes you think I know what I’m talking about when somebody went straight to the bench. He didn’t try to go get dab nobody up. He went straight to his seats. And that’s, you know, in this day and age coaches and players are so caught up in days off, you know, but yet in the summertime they’re posting where they constantly in the gym. It’s the funniest thing to me ever where they like, “Oh, we got to load management.” You know, lower man in the summertime you filming every day where you hooping, you working out, doing this. That don’t make sense to me. So now we get in the league. Oh, I got to have a mandatory day off. Yeah, if you’ve been to four games in five nights. I get that. So it’s okay sometimes to practice. Someone said you don’t have to practice for three hours. You can practice for an hour. Yeah, you ain’t got to go hard for three hours. Yeah, just get you some work in, especially learn how to communicate with each other on the court. How to work well with each other on the court. You have to have these moments on the court. And LeBron key, you know, I said it before the game started. I want to see if he’s in shape or not. And he’s not where he I’m sure where he wants to be. He’s in shape, but not great shape. On Wednesday, that’s an 8:00 p.m. start. That’s an NBA Cup game. Back-to-back NBA Cup games. November 28th, it’s the Mavericks at home. That’s a Friday night, I believe. Ally, that is exclusive. Exclusive. Prime. And then, uh, it’s the Pelicans and the Suns. And then the Lakers go out on the road against the Toronto Raptors. All those games except the Mavs can be seen right here on Specting Sports. Marcus Smart team high plus 18 with Mike Trudeau. Well, Marcus, you see these games a lot in the NBA. A team has a, you know, 10ish point lead and the other team starts to walk them down. It gets a little slower. What did you guys have to do to ultimately hold them off? Um, we just had to, you know, follow our game plan. You know, uh, through the chaos, we had to stick with our game plan. Um, and just continue to make the right reads. We did that. Um, we did enough to to survive. Um, obviously we would have liked it not to have been that close, but it’s the NBA. That’s it happens. So, um, we came out with the win and that’s all that matters. You improved to eight and two on the road now despite having guys in and out, different lineups and such. What would you attribute to that overall and and how encouraging is that for you? Um, just everybody’s work ethic, you know, everybody being ready, um, you know, uh, being on your toes. Um, and just really expecting the unexpected. uh you know, we not we can’t tell when a guy’s going to be out. Uh sometimes, you know, it comes um you know, at the last minute for us and we just have to be able to be ready and adjust and we’re doing a great job with it. We just got to continue to stay with it. You guys had an 11-point lead. It’s cut to two. They have the ball out of bounds. Um can you walk me through your read on that final defensive possession? Clearly, there was some sort of contact between you and one of the Jazz players. Yeah, I mean, you know, um just doing what I what I’ve been doing for 12 years, you know, uh just being me. And um you know, um I got to the body and he tried to, you know, draw a foul. It was a smart play. Um tried to draw a foul, get the free throw with the ball, uh uh while the B ball was out of bounds and then, you know, Nerkage, you know, uh set a really physical screen and uh the Fishers let us play. So that was it. Marcus, um, you guys are, I guess, like defensive rating has been sort of middle of the road this season. Um, you guys feel like haven’t had a great shooting night, um, in a while, um, if at all. And you guys are 12 and four. Um, how or why? Um, just our resilience, you know. Um, um, it’s something new every game for us that’s allowing us to do that when we we get in those WS. Um um you know, we have some vets on the team that do a really good job of, you know, uh controlling the the tempo, controlling, you know, tempers, controlling emotions, and making sure, you know, we get the job done. Um but, you know, we we’re we’re definitely going to shoot better. Um we work too hard not to. It’s part of the game. Um you just got to keep shooting it, though. Does it provide confidence in what this group can be like once you guys do shoot better, the defense is more consistent like where you guys can usually achieve? Definitely. I mean, you know, we’re winning games and I think we’re one of, if not the worst three-point shooting team in the league. Um, and some of our defensive woes that, you know, that is happening. You know, we got guys coming back, guys out, um, guys playing different positions. Um, and things like that. So, once we get back on track, um, I think, uh, you know, um, those things get cleaned up along with our shooting, um, and you will see a different team. But, uh, we’re very optimistic, um, to win games, uh, in different ways. All right, Luca. Last three games. Ally 37 points, 46% from the field, three-pointers. He says he’s got to get better in that area. The whole team does, but over eight rebounds and eight assists. Yeah, he But you know, I’m going take over for Ally cuz these assists are great by Luca. Lucas 37 points, man. She’s just ignoring me over there. So, I thought we were throwing to Luca. We’re waiting for waiting for He’s played really well. You know what I like best is I said it earlier where if he’s not not if he’s not knocking down a three-point shot, he goes to his post game. You know, the post game is kind of a lost arc. And with him in the post, you know, even LeBron did that a lot tonight. They got a lot of passes out of post. And that’s one thing that sometimes these three-point minded coaches don’t think about. If you go in the post, there’s not a defense alive that’s gonna say, “Oh, we just gonna let him score in the post.” They’re going to double team and then you get to kick it out to the guy who’s in a spot of position who gets to take a great shot and not a good shot because there’s nobody there to contest the shot. You know who sparked the game a little bit? Philip Philipowski. Oh yeah. By the way, he was minus 27. So I don’t want to give him any credit at all. He’s just not good enough. But he he did talk and chirp a little bit. I thought Ally and kind of wake the guys up a little bit during that Utah run. Look, you got to you got to bring something to the game. Know your role. Star in your role. Kyle was doing that. First of all, I’ll be like, “Yo, man, you cannot talk trash with a strip across your nose.” And so I’ll be like, “Yo, man. What are you doing? Go back on the bench and sit down.” He didn’t. There’s I’m just shocked that nobody talk trash back to him. Look at him just chirping like that. Apparently Luke had a little bit of a smirk. What is that? I missed those moments. Yeah. Supposed to be able to open up your breathing. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Allegedly. Looks like we’re waiting to hear from Luca still. You know, the one thing I will say, I do want to get your thoughts on this because we talked about it on the nonlaker game game day show as we wait on Luca, but the volume of shots that Luca does take, you know, he’s going to take them. Make or miss. We’re going to Luca Don Salt Lake. Love when that happens. I’m glad I didn’t have to answer that question. Luca, you guys are I guess you guys won another game tonight um where you guys did not shoot the ball well. Um that’s it’s been a little bit of a trend for this team so far. I guess are are you discouraged by the prolonged shooting slump for the group or are you encouraged that despite it this team still keeps figuring out ways to win games? Yeah, I’m not worried about at all. Uh I think we didn’t play our best game and we still find a way to win. So, uh that’s what great great teams do. Uh obviously I think me and AR haven’t hit a shot in decision. So I’m not worried at all. Uh once we start making it’s going to be really tough to go with the um I think Gabe or I’m sorry Marcus and Austin kind of pointed to the team’s chemistry and togetherness maybe as reasons why you guys have been able to figure it out um despite not playing your best basketball. Is is that kind of your assessment as well? Yeah, for sure. Uh, I think we have each other’s back. Uh, everybody has each other’s back. Uh, like I said, you know, great teams got to got to find got to find a way to win. Uh, today by far was not, like I said, our best game and we found a way to win. Were you able to get talk to DeAndre, just get a feel for us where, you know, his spirits after not being able to finish the game in the second half? I told you. What did you think of Maxi’s minutes and what he provided to the group? JJ mentioned him and Gabe

FULL Lakers POSTGAME INTERVIEWS & ANALYSIS vs Jazz: JJ Redick, LeBron, Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves